


Sum of Him

by Neferit



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 17:59:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12753321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neferit/pseuds/Neferit
Summary: The words used to describe him were often lacking.





	Sum of Him

_Arue’tal._

If there is one word that symbolises everything Torian Cadera was, is, and will be, it’s this one. Arue’tal. Traitor’s blood.

His people had a saying. Gar taldin ni jaonyc; gar sa buir, ori'wadaas'la. Nobody cares who your father was, only the father you'll be. But as far as he knew, the saying was a big lie.

Nobody cared that he had been too young to even remember his father, when he had been branded a traitor, and his clan almost completely destroyed. Nobody cared that he had gone further than anyone else he knew to prove himself in the eyes of his people.

All they needed to hear had been his clan name, and any recognition he had gotten from his comrades disappeared as if made of smoke. He never had been just Torian Cadera. It always had been _Torian Cadera, son of Jicoln_.

_Vod._

He had only gotten himself called comrade by a handful of people; he could count them on the fingers of his hand, and still have spare fingers. But one of those people got him a rumour; an idea how to finally make people see _him_ , and not a shadow that loomed above him all his life.

Taris. The planet bombed into ruins centuries ago, became home to Jicoln Cadera, the traitor. As soon as he arrived there, he quickly left the Imperial grounds, disappearing on other Mandalorians like a ghost.

His father made his home here, where the Republic was trying to rebuild. If he made the Pubs afraid enough, his father will come.

_Handsome._

It weren’t his father who came. It had been a young woman with a droid by her side, carefully moving in the old ruins he was hiding at. When he made his presence known, she turned her head sideways enough for her to see him, before she spoke.

“Come here often, handsome?”

The easy way her voice flew through the air made him hesitate, and in the next moment, he had been on the ground, the woman pointing a lit lightsaber in his face.

She looked too sane to be a Sith, which meant only one thing. The colonists sicced a Jedi on him.

He told her of his reasons to come, to shoot at the colonists without killing any of them. She looked at him thoughtfully, the droid whirring at her excitedly when he finished.

“If it will make our colonists safe, we will help you,” she told him, offering him her hand to help him up. Her clasp was strong, and for a moment, he allowed himself to remember the shock he felt when she called him ‘handsome’.

Women would flirt with him in the past, even spend the night with him - but none of them ever called him that.

It was… nice.

_An Ally._

“We really need to stop meeting with me standing above you.”

Sunstone Filars, the Jedi that confronted him in the ruins of an old factory, and who had been busy by running all over the planet in search of trophies left behind by his father in the death game he called, knelt by his side with her fellow Jedi, both their hands busy checking his injuries, completely unminding his protests that they should pursue Jicoln instead. Only after his injuries had been taken care of, they left him to rest, with the astromech keeping him company, as they followed after his father.

“Sunstone + Kira = worried over Torian. T7 = will protect Torian. Torian = need not to worry.”

Standing before his father, he listened as the older man told him the story of the Crusader’s Schism; the story known to him, but not from this angle.

Only when he had his blaster pointed at Jicoln did his unlikely allies step in. “It may not mean much to you now, Jicoln Cadera,” Sunstone spoke reverently. “But to many in our order, you are a hero.”

“Keep my son safe, Jedi,” his father replied, staring at her intently, “for I couldn’t do that for most of his life.”

“If he allows it, I will.”

The Republic soldiers seemed surprised to see him coming up to the closest outpost, once he notified the Mandalore of his father’s death, and got some recognition for that; supposedly cleaning the name of his clan of the stain that was his father’s betrayal. But Sunstone left strict orders to let him be accompanied by several soldiers, and he left the planet on her ship, his life pledged to her and her cause.

They were allies and for once, the word sounded right.

_Beloved._

They danced around each other for months, the tension between them tangible and growing whenever they spoke, before Kira lost her patience with them at last and locked them in the armory with a warning that they will talk _or else…!_

The following silence had been unnerving.

Sunstone stood there before him, her cheeks flushed, as she clutched her hands in a rare display of nerves.

“I’m in love with you,” he said plainly, not wishing for any games. Her expression morphed from one of nervousness into one of joyous astonishment.

They talked, yes, although much later than Kira probably thought they would.

_Riduur._

They called him one of the Republic heroes of the most recent war between the Republic and the Empire. Back home, he was surprisingly viewed as an honourable warrior, who held his word to the one who saved his life and gained fame with his deeds.

But all those accolades meant very little to him, as there had been one only recently added to his name.

Riduur. Husband. Torian Cadera, husband of Sunstone Filars.

And this time, he didn’t mind being defined by his relation to someone else, for this time, it had been in relation to someone whom his soul will know forever.


End file.
